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Sudden Headache: Think Elsewhere
Buried beneath all of the headlines concerning Senator Edward M. Kennedy's brain tumor diagnosis is an equally important story with valuable health advice for everyone.Remember New York's new Governor, David Patterson? He succeeded Eliot Spitzer after 'Client 9' resigned because of his involvement with prostitutes. Patterson also gained attention for becoming New York's first black governor and for being America's first legally blind governor.
Governor Patterson is blind in his left eye and has very limited vision in the fellow eye.
Earlier this week Governor Patterson went to the hospital complaining of severe left-sided headache. The original symptoms suggested migraine: intense pain, one sided, worse with physical exertion, nausea. Patterson was admitted for evaluation but all of the migraine testing was negative.
The facts are incomplete but it appears that someone decided to perform an eye exam and, lo and behold, Patterson was found to have a dangerous elevation of intraocular pressure in the blind left eye. Yes, acute glaucoma was responsible for all of his misery.
Medications successfully lowered the pressure and a laser surgical procedure fixed the anatomic problem that allowed Patterson's pressure to jump so high.
Here's the point: many folks presenting with acute pain are experiencing an unrecognized glaucoma attack. People with 'the worst headache of their life' did not have a burst aneurysm or meningitis - they had an eye problem that generated enormous referred pain.
Beware! It's not just headaches, either. Folks have undergone appendectomy for abdominal pain and nausea...symptoms caused by an abrupt elevation of intraocular pressure.
Acute glaucoma can affect blind eyes as well as eyes that see 20/20. Although Governor Patterson had no sight in his left eye he was still able to sense pain. Other people in this same situation with an otherwise healthy eye need urgent care in order to correctly diagnose and treat the glaucoma. Time wasted leads to permanent, irreversible loss of the delicate nerve fibers that allow us to see.
Here's some solid advice for my physician colleagues and all other readers: if you ever have to accompany someone to the emergency room with new-onset severe pain (headache, belly pain, facial pain, dental pain...whatever!) and the treating doctor cannot identify the cause, consider the possibility of acute glaucoma. You might just save somebody's eyesight.
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: glaucoma, headache, pain, blindness, Patterson, vision
